1965 Skylark - a continued journey

02Pilot said:

With a car that heavy, I can't imagine a reason not to upgrade to discs in the front, scope creep be damned.

It is a common misconception that discs offer more brake torque.  The truth is that for a given packaging condition, i.e. "Inside the same wheel", a duo-servo drum will *always* make more brake torque.

however, duo-servo drums are more sensitive to differences in temperature, humidity, contaminants, etc, so they can make the car feel darty i.e. Unstable.  That's the main performance reason why discs replaced drums, and why the changeover from drum to disc was implemented on front axles first.

My first car was a 1964 Buick Skylark coupe with the 225ci Fireball V6 and the 2-speed Super Turbine 300. I can tell you right now that it was the s l o w e s t car in existence. It did 0-60... uhhh... maybe? But man, that car was a looker! I'd love to have one again. 

I followed along last time, and I'll be doing the same now. Good luck with it! 

Also: make sure that dual circuit master cylinder swap gets done ASAP. I have some not-so-fond memories of the car sailing through intersections thanks to the "suicide cylinder". 

I'm utterly shocked there has been no mention about 'metallic mint green paint', 'positraction rear end' or Michellin 75R14's' in this thread.

But nonetheless that's one sweet ride

In reply to Stanger2000 :

14” wheels?  I have a set of 4 205/70-14 tires Nankang CX-658-the performance tire line from Maypop Tire :)-that are from late 2014 on the stock wheels on my ‘69 Cougar.  They’ll more than likely never be mounted on my car again and I’ll sell them for cheap.  I’m in the Detroit area. Let me know if you’re interested.  

I have a weird fondness for old 4 door and station wagon cruisers so I'll follow along!

Wait, I have some old school wire wheels.....  FLAKE ROOF AND WIRE WHEELS 

Robbie said:

NOT A TA said:

I have an extra tach/dwell meter still in original package I'd be happy to send ya. Can't bring myself to throw out stuff like that and I have more I rarely use.  Send your mailing info to laboratoryfourteen@gmail.com

that is an awesome offer - emailed - thanks!

Boxed & labeled, it'll go out in the AM. You should have a tracking # sent from my website.

AngryCorvair said:

02Pilot said:

With a car that heavy, I can't imagine a reason not to upgrade to discs in the front, scope creep be damned.

It is a common misconception that discs offer more brake torque.  The truth is that for a given packaging condition, i.e. "Inside the same wheel", a duo-servo drum will *always* make more brake torque.

however, duo-servo drums are more sensitive to differences in temperature, humidity, contaminants, etc, so they can make the car feel darty i.e. Unstable.  That's the main performance reason why discs replaced drums, and why the changeover from drum to disc was implemented on front axles first.

The first few years of A body GM cars (Chevy, Buick, Olds and Pontiac intermediates) did have pretty marginal drum brakes, they were small and prone to fade, even moreso than other cars of the era.

Went to go pick up the disk brake kit last night and had a nice chat with a GTO guy. He had 3 (but just sold this one Ebay Link, to a dealer, who is now trying to flip it). 

This disk brake kit was supposed to be for that red 64 GTO, but it sold before the guy I met could install it! He had just finished doing a ground up restoration on that red one in his backyard shop, put it up for sale, and a dealer bought it on the first day. Self-taught guy, was not a mechanic or body guy for a living. He was VERY pleased with how much money he got from it (said it made him feel like he did a good job). 

His two other GTOs were probably nicer... One all original numbers matching 64 blah blah blah, but with beautiful blue paint and a 4 speed. The other was his 'race car' with a Pontiac 400 big block bored out to 482 cubes. He said it runs 12s (but he also noted he isn't great at consistently launching his 4-speed). Anyway, fun to just go meet the guy and chat a bit. He definitely loves the GTO, and was able to give me some tech tips on a-body brakes. He strongly recommends I go get the proportioning valve from cars that came stock with front disks and rear drums. And since it is like $60-70 bucks, I think I will likely do that. 

Also, I popped off the choke cover and found that the spring had just become unhooked from the lever. Reconnected it and the car fired right up bone cold (about 30-40 degrees in the shop last night maybe?). I didn't open the garage door so I didn't let the car run long enough to check the choke adjustment, but I think I can get it sorted pretty quickly. Supposedly to adjust the spring tension you actually need the motor at full operating temp and you want the choke completely open at that point - which now that I think about it makes total sense. 

wawazat said:

14” wheels?  I have a set of 4 205/70-14 tires Nankang CX-658-the performance tire line from Maypop Tire :)-that are from late 2014 on the stock wheels on my ‘69 Cougar.  They’ll more than likely never be mounted on my car again and I’ll sell them for cheap.  I’m in the Detroit area. Let me know if you’re interested.  

hmmm, maybe! that would be about the right size. My good buddy is in detroit and I'm out there 3-4 times a year (or more). Are they still on your stock wheels? Would you dismount the tires or leave them on the wheels (ie are you planning to keep the stock wheels)?

AngryCorvair said:

Google "lace roof paint".  It is literally stretching lace fabric across a panel, then *lightly* painting over it, then removing the fabric.  flake is metalflake, pearl is another type of additive that makes the clear change color a little depending on viewing angle. 

here's a good example:

ha! makes sense. My mom is an interior designer (by hobby mostly, but had her own company for a while). For a while she was really into doing plaster on the wall, squeegeing lace into it, and then pulling the lace down. Gives the texture and the look. Sort of like this, but of course really hard to convey in pictures. This image may just be wallpaper. I'll have to tell her I'm going to lace the top of the skylark!

They are still on the stock steelies.  I'm happy to have them dismounted if you'd like and can probably deliver them to him as I travel for work around SE Michigan.

In reply to Robbie :

Don't tell her.  Show her.

I've been in Denver visiting family all week, but I did get the Skylark up on the lift and took some photos before I left.

Underside is really rust free. It's a bummer there are rust spots on the body...

I did find this mysterious cable coming from (I think) the trans. I wonder if this has something to do with the early shifting...

Also, since I am now doing the front disk brakes, I grabbed a GM manual brakes disk/drum master + combination valve kit with the eBay 15% off deal yesterday. So that's exciting. Unfortunately I won't be able to use the master that came with the car - so anyone need a drum/drum master?

That’s your kickdown cable.  Hook it up, but i would guess governor issue for early shifting 

Looks like my ‘65 Chevelle 4-Door. I miss that car. 

Find a set of 5th gen camaro steel wheels.  They are cheap and I think they look good on a 60's a body.

They look good on trucks too...

In reply to pimpm3 :

Where did you find chrome trim rings and center caps? The stepside in the last picture needs them.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

My neighbor picked up a non running 65 with the V6 in the beginning of the summer. He played around and by the end of the day had it running and has been almost DDing it ever since. 

The Pats are right, Flake/Lace etc are the way to go for your paint issue.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Ebay...

Chrome trim rings 5th gen Camaro

Just posting a two tone scheme i found that will let me cover up most of the egregious paint problems. There is still some rocker rust, but if I do white in place of the red on this car, that should fix 90% of the looks issues. 

I'll try to do it with spray cans and some elbow grease. 

White bottom, satin black top, aluminium 1 inch wide pinstripes between.

So for your car, the original paint will remain along the sides but the roof, hood and trunk would be white?

Another thought - If you're going with spray cans, you can get them color matched to the original paint if you want and then you could do the hood and trunk in the same color they are now (if there is a slight difference, you do have a natural break line along the edge of the fenders so it wouldn't be so obvious.)

Are you still interested in the 14" tires I have Robbie?  

Todd